Tension
by xAngel Of Music
Summary: Set after "Let Them Eat Cake". Cuddy explains to House that she'd found out about his 'renovation' plans, and needs to stay in his office longer. Will he allow it? Huddy.
1. Chapter 1

"House, I have to stay into your office for awhile longer," Cuddy explained as the two meandered down the hallway, Cuddy's heels and House's cane making a rhythm on the cold floor.

"God, you just love me, don't you?" He retorted, casting a glance over at her.

" You just keep telling yourself that.. but since _someone_ was cunning enough to make my office renovation plans take even longer, this is what you get." She told him.

They were on their way back from the cafeteria, where House, Wilson, and Cuddy had planned to eat lunch. Wilson had backed out while House and Cuddy were bickering because he didn't want to butt in.. plus, the two obviously needed a room or something.

"There are much bigger offices in the hospital. Couldn't you irritate somebody else?" House inquired as he entered his office, purposely closing the door before Cuddy could follow in.

But to no avail, Cuddy made her way in herself with an irritated look. "I…" She stuttered. She didn't know how to reply to this; there _were_ a lot bigger offices in PPTH, and she could easily persuade someone else to let her use them. Why did she want House's office? Had Wilson been right? Did she.. want to be here?

"You…" House mused. "Love me?"

"No," she snapped way too quickly.

"Fast response, inquiring you do. How sweet." He rolled his eyes. "But sorry, I don't date women that have passed child-bearing age." He retorted.

Cuddy actually felt hurt by that comment. The look of rage in her blue-gray eyes faded to sadness as she remembered all the times she'd failed in her attempt of becoming a mother. "Whatever, House." She replied coldly and turned to leave.

Completely to her surprise, House rested his hand firmly on her shoulder, which somehow kept her from leaving. "Wait."

She slowly turned to find him standing close to her. "What?" She breathed, slowly looking up to meet his beautiful blue eyes.

"Sorry." He choked out. She knew that must have been hard for him to say. ".. I guess you can stay. For now."

Cuddy was taken back by how close together they were. If someone walked in at this moment, rumors would fly around the hospital. "Thanks." Was all she could find to whisper.

Slowly, House edged forward and planted a soft kiss on Cuddy's lips, only to have Wilson step unnoticeably through the clear glass door, a smirk appearing among his features at the sight of the two he knew so well.


	2. Chapter 2

**Greeetings! :) Lenasti16 suggested I write more of this one, so I'll try it out. So I just remembered that Cuddy does get her office fully renovated in Let Them Eat Cake, so I'm changing that I guess. TAKE THAT 1950 SOCIETY! Ehem, anyway.. :3**

Cuddy saw a number of emotions flash through House's eyes. Love, uncertainty, and last but not least; regret.

Wilson was standing there with a huge smile planted on his face. He obviously didn't notice House's current expression.

"Excuse me." House muttered in a tone that seemed angry before stealing back the hand that had resided on Cuddy's shoulder before and leaving the room.

"What was that?" Wilson asked, the smile fading from his face.

Cuddy stared at where House had left. "I don't know." She replied softly, feeling a bit hurt at the fact that he'd simply kissed her and left.

Not only was that upsetting her, but now they had to share his office, too. Great.

"Don't worry, it'll be alright. House is probably just surprised.. and confused. He'll come around." Wilson gave Cuddy's shoulder a comforting pat.

"I have to talk to him. We can't do something like this again." Cuddy replied, giving Wilson a 'thank you' look before retreating out of the room to find House.

Where would he have gone? Knowing House, to avoid drama, he'd.. well, he'd either throw himself to work or he'd go home. She decided checking the hospital first would be easier.

As she made her way down the hallway, she stopped Thirteen, who she saw passing.

"Hello, Dr. Hadley," she greeted solemnly, before continuing, "have you seen House around?"

A look of surprise washed over Thirteen's face when Cuddy called her 'Dr. Hadley'. Most people in the hospital had taken to House's nickname, even if it was a bit odd.  
"Umm, I think he's with his patient upstairs." Thirteen paused. "Are you okay, Cuddy? You look.." She trailed off, obviously unable to describe her boss's expression at the moment.

"I'm fine. Thanks." She nodded to Thirteen before making her way around to House's patients' room. She was honestly surprised he didn't leave.

As she slipped through the door, there he was. He was sitting and asking the woman questions about her symptoms. "House. Can I talk to you outside?" She glanced towards the door.

He looked from the woman to Cuddy. "I'll be right back," he stated curtly before rising to his feet and following Cuddy out into the hallway.

"House, that can't happen again." She announced, obviously referring to their kiss not so long ago.

"What, me working? That can be arranged." He smirked a bit.

Cuddy sighed. Same old House, even after a confusing kiss.

"That's not what I meant. I meant the part where you kissed me and left." She sounded a bit irritated now.

"So what you're saying is you want me to kiss you and…" She could almost see the dirty thoughts jumbled in his mind.

"I don't want you to kiss me. House, I'm your boss. It could never work. But I still have to share your office, and I don't want things to be weird." She explained.

House studied the confused and stressed expression on her face. She was taking this harder than he was now. At first he felt confused and angry, when he left after kissing her, but now it just seemed.. distant.

Cuddy obviously wasn't expecting a reply from him. "Just do your job." She ordered, before wheeling around and making her way back to House's office to try (and probably fail) to do paperwork.

House watched her go before turning and walking back into his patient's room. "So, where were we?" He inquired lowly.

"Was that your girlfriend?" She asked, changing the subject.

"No." He snapped.

"Oh. If you two aren't together then, you totally should. You two have a _lot_ of tension." A tiny smile was playing at the patient's lips.

"Right. So, you have abdominal pain and a rash, right?" He asked.

"I think she likes you," the woman announced almost happily.

House sighed in annoyance. "Gotta go." He announced simply before leaving the room. After a few minutes, he came to the outer part of his office, where Chase, Thirteen, and Taub were sitting and talking.

He could see Cuddy feverishly working on paperwork in the other room. Or trying to.

"So, what do you guys have?" He demanded.

"I have a feeling your upsetting Cuddy." Thirteen piped in.

"Can we all stop talking about Cuddy for two seconds? She's not ruler of the world. That's my job." He replied sardonically.

"What did you say to her?" Chase questioned, glancing over at Cuddy who obviously didn't notice them.

"Nothing. Now can we focus on this seriously annoying sick woman?" House asked.

"House, you're never one for focusing on the patient. Meaning you have something else on your mind. Say.. Cuddy?" Taub interrupted.

"You know, I could have who I'm going to fire on my mind, too. Now, about this possibly dying woman.." House glared at him, which made all three of them shut up and begin shooting out possible diseases.

Cuddy could hear the four people chattering away about the patient in the room next to her, but she also heard them talking about herself. More evidence that the walls weren't soundproof.

She sighed and pushed her paperwork aside. She was surprised that she got as much done as she did without spelling random words wrong. Stupid kiss.

Later that night, mostly everyone had gone home, except for Cuddy who had begun feverishly working on her papers again, and House who had stayed up late to try figuring out what was wrong with the woman.

Cuddy rose from her seat and slid her jacket on. She still had a heap of work to do, and a certain someone to distract her from that work without him even speaking to her. She looked over her work once more before getting on her way home.

"House, you have to talk to her," Wilson persuaded gently in the other room. They needed to remember the non-soundproof walls.

"We've talked already." House announced.

"It's obvious you like her, House. You can't tell me you don't know that the patient has Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever." Wilson said.

House mentally kicked himself. Of course! Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever matched all of her symptoms; all he had to do was find out if she'd been bitten by a tick.

"See? It'll continue to be like this until you talk to Cuddy." Wilson announced.

House knew Wilson was right. He had to talk to her. Now the question was whether to wait until morning came around or to go over to her house.

"I know what you're thinking, House," declared Wilson. "Wait until tomorrow. Going to her house is almost one hundred percent sure to end in disaster."

"Hmm.. so, you just told me _not_ to go over to her house.. now I know what I'm going to do." House said as he made his way out of the room and prepared himself to pay a visit to Cuddy's home.


	3. Chapter 3

**So, this hasn't been the best night... my mom got into a huge fight with her boyfriend, and as totally amazing as she is, the downstairs neighbor heard and let me come down with her until it was finished. He ended up hurting my mom, and the cops didn't even arrest him. What. The. Heck? Well, enough of my ranting. :P**

House honestly had no idea what he was going to say when he pulled up to Cuddy's house. He knew he'd probably end up screwing it up somehow.

He sighed and got out of the car, limping up to the door. He waited a brief moment before knocking, and simply hoping she'd open the door.

Cuddy knew it was him the second he knocked on the door. What could he possibly want with her now? She thought she'd made it clear that their relationship should remain professional.

She reluctantly pulled open the door to find nothing but what she expected; House standing there towering over her.

"What do you want, House?" She asked aggitatedly.

"Wilson says we should talk." He announced gruffly with a shrug of his shoulders.

"It's late, and I'm tired. When do you listen to anything Wilson says, anyway?" Cuddy inquired with a yawn that followed.

He moved rudely into her house, forcing her to duck out of his way.

"What are we supposed to be talking about?" Cuddy asked a different question, seeing as she got no response from the last.

"The way you obviously got no work done because you were _thinking about me_," he replied, obviously amused by the huge stack of papers piled on the table by the couch.

"I wasn't thinking about you, House." She replied darkly, and way too fast.

"Of course you weren't," he started, "just like you have no interest in me when you move into _my_ office, when there are a lot bigger offices in the building. Not to mention a lot more willing people."

"I moved into the office of the man directly responsible for the mess in _my_ office." She replied simply.

"Actually, the man directly responsible was the psycho patient who trapped us in there. Though it'd be a bit weird to move into his office." House shrugged.

"Will you get out of my house, please?" She sighed.

"Maybe, if you'll admit that you like me." He towered over her once again, clawing her with his piercing blue eyes.

"Don't act like you happen to approach the same place and show up at my house whenever I have a date and parade into my office every day and say you don't like _me._" She threw at him.

"I can see that you're just dying for me to kiss you again." House announced, studying her blue-gray eyes intently.

Cuddy tried to shake the affect he had on her off. "I'm your boss, House."

He smirked. "Not right now you're not. I think I could get you to do just about anything right now."

"No, you couldn't," she replied in a weaker tone than she meant to.

"Wanna bet?" He inquired.

Cuddy knew he was right. At this moment, he could get her to jump off a bridge if he wanted to. She couldn't help the way his sky-like eyes pierced through the last of her defences and saw straight through her.

House never realized how beautiful she looked with her intricate blue-gray gaze locked intensely on his, momentarily forgetting everything around her. He raised a hand to rest on her cheek and slowly he seized the opportunity to kiss her.

She hadn't the time, nor the strength to stop him from kissing her. Her arms instinctively wound around his neck as they melted into a series of kisses.

After moments of revealing more of their intense passion they broke apart. House stared into her eyes a moment longer to see the pain that flashed through them.

Cuddy knew that kiss was wrong; people who got close to House got hurt, and that was a proven fact. She didn't want to be hurt. Not by him.

"I should go," House stated. He turned and retreated out the door without a simple goodbye. He knew nothing he could say could really help her.

"Goodnight." Cuddy dismissed softly. She stared after him for a few moments after the door had been shut before finally making her way off to bed. Not that she'd get much sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello, pretty kitties! :D It's currently 1:56 A.M. here and I'm tiired! Hah. But I decided to stay up and write fanfiction because I'm just that nerdy. So, what do YOU guys want to see? :)**

"You kissed her and left _again_?" Wilson asked. He sounded almost as irritated as House was as they stood outside House's office.

"Yeah, I know. I'm a jerk. So I've been told." House replied darkly.

"So I told you to talk to her, you go over, kiss her_ again_, and end up right back where you started. Nice." Wilson sighed.

"Well why don't you talk to her then?" House snapped.

"Because she-- wait, that's not a bad idea.." Wilson announced, his eyes lighting up like a small boy's.

"Right.. well I'm just going to pretend I'm still interested in this possible Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever woman so I can walk away." House replied before limping his office.

Wilson rolled his eyes. House actually had a good idea. With that idea, he made his way off to Cuddy's office.

He slowly opened the door and stepped in, earning a glance up from her work from Cuddy.

"What do you need, Wilson?" She asked professionally as she scribbled some words across the paper.

"Err.." He began. Not the best way to start a conversation.

"If you're here to talk about House.. don't. Please." She replied.

"You have to talk about it sometime." He explained.

"No, I don't. If I wanted to talk about it I would have brought it up." She told him, glancing up from her work again.

"He's trying not to be a jerk when he does these things, you know," he replied.

She sat back in her seat. "Well, I think he needs to try harder then, because kissing me and walking out every time in my book does _not_ count as a kind gesture." Cuddy explained.

"Well, he _wants_ to be kind. It's just new for him. Give him time." Wilson replied.

"How much time do I need to give him, Wilson? I can't just sit around and wait for him." She folded her arms across her chest.

Wilson sighed. "Can't you see that he's only trying to change for _you_? He wouldn't do this for anyone else. He cares about you, he's just trying to figure out how to show it." Wilson explained to her.

Cuddy was starting to get irritated by her friend now. "Wilson, leave. I don't feel like talking about this." She ordered.

Without another word, Wilson turned around slowly and ducked out the door.

She sat back in her seat for a few moments and gazed at the closed door, her arms still folded across her chest as if she were still arguing with Wilson.

"So, how long did it take before she kicked you out?" House asked from his seat while Wilson made his way into House's office.

"I had about three minutes.." Wilson replied slowly.

"Did she fall for your 'he's trying' speech?" House asked, hiding hope.

"She didn't show it, but I think she might have. And you are trying. I can see it." He said.

House simply gazed at Wilson in reply.

Wilson sighed and gave up, turning around and leaving House to go back to 'his' department.

Cuddy wasn't hard to miss as she passed House's office; well, she wasn't hard to miss for him, anyway. He knew her too well.

For just a second, their two gazes locked. Ice and sky collided. And for a minute, House thought she might stop to come see him. But to no avail, Cuddy just retreated down the hallway and into the elevator, trying not to think about the way-too-familiar icy blue eyes that she adored.


End file.
